Air Traffic Management to undergo sea change with space tech app

CHENNAI:

Air Traffic Management will undergo a sea change in India with the introduction of Space Based Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS) Broadcast where in the pilot doesn’t have to feed in his location to the Air Traffic Control room every 10 to 15 minutes.

Pradeep Kandoth, general manager Air Traffic Management (ATM), Chennai, said that it is being proposed to use the Space Based ADS to monitor the airspace along the seas.

The Space-based ADS-B service will complement ground-based air traffic surveillance systems currently in use, by seamlessly relaying position and status information of aircraft flying over oceans, poles and remote regions to air traffic controllers on the ground.  This new capability is a quantum leap for remote surveillance thus unlocking operational efficiencies, reducing fuel costs and enhancing safety in remote and oceanic airspace.

It is learnt that Airport Authority of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Aireon, developer and operator of the world’s first space-based global air traffic surveillance system to collaborate on the potential deployment of Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) services in Indian airspace.

This would ensure the surveillance over 1,200 nautical miles over the Indian Ocean with radar like pictures.

He also said that there are plans to bifurcate the  Oceanic airspace of Chennai which  spans an area of around 4,00,000 Square nautical miles through which around 400 International Overflying aircraft transit daily using the 14 International routes providing the vital connectivity between East and Western parts of the Globe.

“We are planning to bifurcate it into lower and upper airspace in the next five to six months,” he said.

He said that Airport Authority of India (AAI) is in the process of implementing Central Command Centre, Air Traffic Flow Management (CATFM) system covering the entire Indian airspace and major airports. This was implemented by the United States after terror attacks in 2001. “We have already implemented it in Delhi,” he said

He said Airport Authority of India, Chennai, has undertaken the project of Sectorising the Oceanic Airspace on trial basis. The airspace is  split into two sectors after assessing the workload of the controllers, traffic density in each sector , number of  traffic conflict points requiring controllers’ intervention  and the communication or surveillance facilities  available in each sector.